Into the Fray
by Nalana
Summary: It's never easy to meet someone's parents, let alone their entire family. Especially when your own example of holiday gatherings is a soap writer's daydream. But it's one plunge they won't regret.


Disclaimer: Don't own, sadly.

A/N: Slight crossover, but not really of consequence.

* * *

"I can't do this." She came to a stop abruptly.

"…You say this after the plane ride." Eric chuckled at her, reaching out for her mitted hand to take it into hers. "Come on, Eeyore. Lighten up. It will be fine.

"Fine. Oh yes. Perfectly fine. Because your family totally already knows about the psychotic basket case you've kept around for a couple years. Are you sure they know my name isn't random-girl-who-picks-up-the-phone-now-and-again? " She jabbered on nervously.

"I think I told them to call you Duncan." He said with thought in his voice.

"Ha ha. You DID tell them I was younger then you…right?" She said nervously as she stopped again on the walkway up to the well maintained but old double floored house.

"It came up." Eric reaffirmed.

"You told them HOW much younger, right?" She prodded.

"The ballpark." He ignored the glare he got from her before inhaling deeply. "Look, Lux. You'll be FINE. It's your folks' general consensus that even your most annoying traits are better then some of mine. So if my parents can love me, they'll ADORE you." He touched his girlfriend's cheek lightly.

"Now come on. If we stay out here much longer, we'll be skating with our boots being their own mini ponds."

They had barely knocked on the door when it flew open. And in a flash of color Lux backed up quickly as a form flew out the door to attach itself to Eric. When the lump of human had stopped she found a shorter woman with a speckling of white streaking through blonde hair latched onto her boyfriend.

"Don't you EVER stay away that long again, do you hear me? You could have at least come home for Christmas! Three years! Why you do that to me I'll never know." From her tone, Lux was sure that the woman was partially joking. Partially.

"I'll do my best." Eric smiled, returning the hug. "Mom?" He said, as his mother didn't detach herself. "Mom?"

"Oh fine, fine." She huffed with a small smile. Backing away from her son she finally noticed the girl beside him. "Oh! You… you must be Lux?" She said. The flash of surprise that had floated crossed her face was instantly hidden. "Well it certainly is nice to put a face to voice!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you—"

"Melinda, or Milly if you prefer." She offered, quickly. "No Ms. And Mrs. Here dear." She smiled warmly, reaching out to her shoulder instead of her hand.

"Oh goodness you two must be frozen stiff! Come on in." She ushered them into the home.

The inside of the building was as rustic as the outside. It wasn't the chaos that was Baze's loft, of the catalog-ready image of Cate and Ryan's house. But it managed to balance between backwoods and class. It worked entirely well. It seemed to be quite reflective of his mother who was completely lax one moment and proper the next. She was beginning to see how Eric could switch back and forth similarly so easily now himself.

"Dinner will be ready soon. We didn't expect your flight to get in so early. Your cousins are in the living room. Dad's still at work. OH! I should warn you. Your Uncle Aaron's started up the old hockey vs. football bit with Sam again. Tread carefully."

"Noted and warned." Eric said immediately looking around cautiously.

Lux had been warned she'd be getting a full dose of the family. Such was a Thanksgiving at his house. His mother's family, the Daniels, were mostly still all in the state. Lux had learned that Eric was actually the product of an almost marriage. It hardly seemed to matter as his mother had met the man he considered his father when he was two. His younger brother, another Sam, had gotten the honor of not being the sore thumb in the family and had gotten their father's last name.

"Oh they're going to be so surprised." He mother smiled brightly.

"Surprised?" Lux squeaked. "What surprise?"

"I uh…Mom said she didn't want to let the others know. So they, kind of…don't know about this?"

"…Eric." She said wearily. His mother laughed at her.

"Oh their bark is worse then their bite." His mother offered before scurrying back to the kitchen leaving them alone in the hall to choose their destination.

Lux opened her mouth to start telling him how far out of the plan he was going when he simply took her by the arm and led her in to the living room. The center of the room was a large flat screen with an equally proportioned couch in front of it. On it was a blonde-haired blue-eyed boy not too far from Lux's age with a fair-featured girl leaning on his shoulder. Across from him another boy in between his and Eric's age chilled. On the rug were two young girls, and preteen looked around the room with disinterest. A woman around Milly's age leaned on the edge of a recliner at a man flailing at the screen.

"HOW can you tell me that isn't skill? Did you even SEE Wellman's footwork going into that shot? Or how he handled the pass from Koivu?" The main in the chair was bent over, leaning towards the blonde on the couch.

"Footwork? You kidding? What is it, figure skating?" the college kid scoffed with a hint of humor. "Real sports don't need footwork. Just skill and results. Tactics don't hurt."

"Says the guy who does musical theatre on the side." Eric shot out into the open air gaining attention instantly.

Lux's eyes widened considerably when a mop of relatives all eager to see the blood-stranger instantly surrounded them. She learned quickly that the blonde was Eric's younger brother, Sam. The armchair owner was Uncle Aaron, and that the two girls on the rugs were his daughters. The preteen was his wife Emily's. The younger boy across from Sam and his girlfriend was his cousin Danny. His father worked with Eric's dad and was yet to arrive.

The moment the attention waned from the long lost Daniels clan member it turned to the woman at his side. Sensing the shift Eric quickly introduced her. Lux gave a weak smile and wave as the others considered her. "Lux is in her first year at U of O, the Educational Foundations department."

Lux spent the next minute or so explaining that she wanted to work with helping kids find their strengths and new ways of learning like Eric had helped her. She wanted to be able to help kids who had been in her situation without tangling herself up in working in the political system that put too many limits on their childcare system.

"Eric helped you, you say?" His uncle looked back and forth between the two the caution clear in his voice. Eric's grip on her shoulder tightened.

"I tutored Lux when she was still in High school, yea." He didn't waver or bat an eyelash. "I helped her work out some issues people had looked over."

"He saved me from academic death." She quipped. "Probably emotional ruin too." She said as a side note. Though she was quick to notice that this didn't seem to win anyone over.

"But now," Eric broke the silence, "you'd never know it. She's gotten so good that her professors want her to look in their foreign exchange program with a lab overseas. They think she had a lot of unique insights." This seemed to impress Eric's aunt at the least.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. From the hallway a loud booming voice broke out and the sight of two men coming around the corner soon set the others into another round of greeting. The man who instantly lit up Lux suspected to be Eric's father. Unlike his stepson and son his hair was on the darker side of pale and sprinkled with grey here and there. His eyes were the same twinkling shade as Sam's, and his smile just as bright as anyone else in his family. He was quick to embrace Eric in a quick but firm hug, turning instantly to Lux.

"Sam? What happened to Quinn? I thought she was coming up with you."

"Uh…dad?" Sam looked over at his girlfriend at his left. She smiled weakly, leaving the man quite confused.

"Dad, this is Lux. She's with me. Lux, this is my dad Harold."

He hesitated, but he then took and shook Lux's offered hand confidently. He was slow to respond, but he added how nice it was to finally put a face to the name. Lux ignored the gnawing in her stomach at both of his parents' reactions. At least it hadn't been the outrage her parents had expressed initially.

Their reunion was broken up by his mother's call from the kitchen of welcome and request for help from her eldest so she could get the meal on the table. Sam's girlfriend and his aunt jumped at the chance to set the table. His aunt invited Lux to join them. Her smile wasn't false or forced. Lux liked her.

Within the kitchen Eric found himself taking the bird from the oven. His mother was excellent in the kitchen but she feared reaching into the appliance for some reason. "You're timing is amazing as usual mom." He commented trying to force his mother's uncommon silence to end.

"I suppose it is." She added looking around for a spoon to put in the cranberry sauce. As casually as possible she added. At that moment his father entered trying to steal a forkful of stuffing. He was quickly batted away.

"Lux seems sweet." His father added taking over potato mashing.

"She is." He agreed. Now was as good of a time as any to make his point, where. "You know I've been with her for almost two years right mom? This isn't a fling." He stopped, leaning against the counter to watch his parents' reaction.

"Did her parents know when you started seeing one another?" His father was plain and to the point. He liked that about him. He didn't say a lot but what he did he meant.

"We told them after she turned eighteen. And no they weren't happy about it. But they've come to accept it. And I know it looks bad, but when you get to know her you'll see she's not exactly her age. She's more mature then me half the time." He snorted.

His parents exchanged one of their infamous looks. "We know you feel quite attached to her dear, but are you sure it's right for you? There are a lot of things she should experience –things you've already put behind you." His mother offered.

"We've talked about that. She's free to experience anything she wants, live her college years and career how she chooses. The last thing I would do is stop her." He crossed his arms.

"Yes, but what about you dear? What about your dreams? You always wanted a family. I doubt she'd be ready for one any time soon." His mother added.

"It's Lux who convinced me to finish my masters." Eric pointed out. "Which is more then Ellie did. And a family is something I can wait for. I know it's not the easiest situation in the world. But she's worth taking the chance."

"You love her." His dad observed.

"More then I thought possible." He held his father's gaze.

"Good enough." His dad nodded, holding up a hand as his wife tried to protest. "Now lets feed this crew.

Lux was placing down the napkins as Quinn went behind her putting down flatware. The slightly younger girl smiled up at her. "They can be kind of overwhelming, but don't worry. You'll be inducted into the family by the end of the night." She said in a low voice to the girl. "My first day was last Christmas. That was interesting." She added.

"IT can't be worse then the first Thanksgiving Eric spent with me and my family." Lux snickered in the memory. It wasn't the easiest of times given what it had lead to and the pressure they had been under. But it was also endearing. After all, it's the day they found out about the would-be-arrival of little Alex. She gave the story, at least the lighter parts of it, to her impromptu-temporary-maid comrade.

"Wow." Quinn said, impressed. Eric's aunt laughed, overhearing the disaster with the turkey and an ejected mouthful of wine. "And I thought knocking over a candle was bad."

"No." Lux gasped slightly.

"Oooh yea." Quinn smirked, laughing at herself. "They asked me to say grace. I knocked it over… that's why we hide that end of the cloth under the table." She pointed out why one side was longer. It was Lux's turn to laugh.

By the time Eric and his parents arrived with the food there was a collective cheer. With the dinner laid out, everyone found a seat at the large table. Apparently it was their tradition for the youngest, or newest, member present to give grace. Quinn should have warned her of that.

Lux stumbled through the thanks. It wasn't something they were used to doing at either Cate's or Baze's but she managed to please them if her glance around the table said anything. "And I'd like to thank all of you for allowing me to come to your table and home tonight, may it be far more peaceful then one of my own family occasions." This received a snicker from the table setting group and Eric.

"May it be the first of many." Eric's mother spoke up. This seemed to surprise her boyfriend who broke into a grin.

As a chorus of 'amens' and 'thank yous' went around the table Lux sat back down and let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding in. A firm hand found hers under the table and squeezed it reassuringly. The gesture was accompanied but a fleeting kiss. Lux tilted her head at him.

"It wasn't that good of a speech."

"It was perfect." He grinned. The let themselves keep their attention on one another briefly before they were swept into the conversation that had started as forks met mouths. To her surprise, Lux found herself jumping into the fray once or twice herself.

Eric had been right, this wasn't quite as painful as she had suspected. Something had shifted between her arrival. Eric's parents seemed to engage her with less tension then their initial greeting. By the end of the evening Lux found that Quinn was right after all. She felt just a little more like she was a part of the Monroe-Daniels family then when she had stood on the doorstep earlier. That was a fuzzy-inducing sentiment that Lux indulged in before burying it for another time.

Maybe the next time, even.


End file.
